Calibration of fluidic devices

1. A method comprising:

inserting a cartridge into a reader assembly, the reader assembly comprising a processor, an analyte signal detector, and a communication interface, the cartridge being configured to be coupled to the reader assembly, the cartridge comprising:

i) a structure configured to receive a sample;

ii) a reactant capable of reacting with a biological analyte in the sample; and

iii) an information storage unit storing identifier information identifying the cartridge;

obtaining the identifier information from the information storage unit;

transmitting the identifier information to a computer server, prior to performing an assay using the cartridge coupled to the reader assembly;

in response to receiving the identifier information, the computer server using the received identifier information to select a protocol from a plurality of protocols stored in the computer server, the selected protocol then being transmitted electronically by the computer server to the communication interface of the reader assembly, wherein the selected protocol comprises instructions to the processor to perform the assay using the cartridge;

measuring with the analyte signal detector, in accordance with the selected protocol, a first signal produced by a first assay of the sample, wherein the sample comprises a known quantity of the biological analyte;

measuring a second signal produced by a second assay of the sample after spiking the sample with a known quantity of the biological analyte;

plotting the difference between said first and second signals against an expected signal representing a target value, wherein the target value is a value expected for the known quantity of the biological analyte;

computing a best fit of calibration parameters by minimizing the sum of the square of the differences between the target value and calculated analyte values from the first and second signals; and

updating a factory calibration parameter of the reader assembly.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication interface is configured to receive the selected protocol wirelessly from the computer server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication interface is configured to receive the protocol via a wired connection from the computer server.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising measuring a third signal from the cartridge representative of a presence or non-presence of the biological analyte present in a second sample based a selected protocol received from the computer server.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the analyte signal detector is configured to detect a luminescent signal.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the analyte signal detector is configured to detect a chemiluminescent signal.

7. The method of claim 4 , the cartridge further comprising a first layer and a second layer, wherein the first and second layers are assembled to form a three dimensional fluidic channel network.

8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

detecting, via the analyte signal detector, the third signal from the cartridge representative of a presence or non-presence of a biological analyte present in a reaction site based a selected protocol received from the computer server; and

correcting a second calibration parameter in response to the third signal.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

compensating temperature control parameters in response to the correcting of the further calibration parameter prior to detecting via the analyte signal detector, the second signal from the cartridge representative of a presence or non-presence of a biological analyte present in in the second sample based on a selected protocol received from the computer server.